Bearded Tits Prosper while Reed Warblers Falter

Bearded Tits appear to have had an excellent season at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve. To date we have caught 42 juveniles which compares with just 48 in the whole of 2013. Young Bearded Tits can be aged by their iris colour which changes from dark brown to  yellow  with age. Using this data almost all the ones caught to date are from the first  broods but in our  last catch on July 1st out of the 9 caught 4 had dark brown eyes and were obviously second broods.The first photo shows an older male with a yellow eye, while the second is of a very young female  with dark brown eye.

Our Reed Warbler RAS got off to a good start and to date we have caught 76 adults (44 new birds and 32 retraps. The retraps included a six year old and a five year old.
Young birds started to appear quite early on 21st June but since then catches of both adults and juveniles have declined especially at two of our sites which are normally good for this species. One possible explanation is that the reed bed is in better condition this year  because of only little damage over the winter by roosting Starlings. For the previous five or so years large areas of the reed bed have been devastated by the Starlings rendering them unattractive  to  breeding Reed Warblers and concentrating the early breeders at least in the remaing good areas close to our ringing sites. This year they can spread right thoughout the reed bed.  However only our visits over the next three months will tell. Would be interesting to know how other Reed Warbler ringers are finding the season.
John